Cognizant-深绿色-数据、技术和协作将如何推动商业可持续发展的下一阶段2023（英文版）.pdf

Table of contents Executive summary 3 Introduction 8 Five recommendations #1 Boost sustainability investments 9 #2 Elevate internal initiatives 15 #3 Expand your sphere of influence 20 #4 Explore deeper application of technology 28 #5 Evolve power structures 32 Final word 37 Authors 39 Methodology 41 Deep Green 3 Executive summary As the world grapples with the urgent need to combat climate change and resource depletion, a new breed of business is emerging. These organizations will be sustainable to the core—not just green but deeply green, with sustainability encoded in their DNA. Sustainability thinking will influence everything these businesses do— affecting their entire sphere of control—from how they get and use their energy and materials to how they develop products and services. Moreover, this type of thinking will impact areas and entities previously outside of these businesses’ control, including their suppliers, distributors, customers and partners, in pursuit of a better tomorrow. What will drive this new breed is a growing conviction that sustainability can reveal new opportunities for those who respond to environmental, social, business and regulatory pressures with a radical and far-sighted rethink of how to operate. Rather than just tending to the sustainability of their internal operations, deeply green businesses will collaborate in entirely new ways across their value chains—coordinating their vision, actions and decisions with other players and partners in their ecosystem. At the same time, they’ll create products and offerings that go beyond mitigating environmental issues, to helping to solve them. Operating in this manner, these businesses will not only shrink their own environmental footprint and those of their stakeholders— they’ll also discover entirely new ways to secure resilient growth. 4 Deep Green We see glimmers of this future state materializing now: It’s the beer manufacturer that not only meticulously tracks the journey of its barley from the field to the bottle using blockchain but also helps its farmers adopt more sustainable agricultural practices. and conditions in the production facility. These companies are leading the charge toward a sustainable future, and they’re doing it with urgency, purpose and transparency. But this level of transparency and interconnectedness requires an expanded understanding of what it means to be sustainable. In a future-ready business, sustainability is made possible with the speed, automation and intelligence of advanced technologies, modernized ways of operating, and new collaborative models within and across value chains. It’s a big lift, but the opportunities are as great as the consequences of inaction are severe. On the one side are the greenfields that can arise from productive partnerships and market-changing, planet-saving products and services; on the other side are disrupted supply chains, dissatisfied consumers and employees, costly regulatory penalties and negative public perception. Meanwhile, the ticking of the clock is deafening. With planetary, economic and societal signals growing more apparent every day, business leaders cannot hide in this age of radical visibility. Executive summary It’s the fintech that puts its money where its mouth is, offering up to 10% cash back when customers buy from its socially responsible business partners. And it’s the apparel company that has built new links between its supplier, production and retail systems, allowing customers to see a garment’s manufacturing location, materials used Deep Green 5 To find out more about the future of sustainability in business, we worked with Oxford Economics to survey 3,000 executives—across every market and sector—on their sustainability plans, challenges and vision. Through our analysis, we’ve devised five recommendations for how leading enterprises can outperform their markets with enduring and differentiating growth by embedding sustainability at their core: Boost sustainability investments to realize full business value There are two compelling sides to the sustainability coin: a need to invest on the one side, and financial rewards on the other. Our survey reveals a rapidly accelerating willingness to spend over the next few years. Between 2020 and 2025, the percentage of respondents increasing their sustainability spending by 10% or greater nearly doubles (from 26% to 51%). By 2030, the percent of respondents grows again, to 62%. Meanwhile, survey respondents firmly tie financial performance to the sustainability actions they take. This conviction only grows over time. The number of respondents who expect their sustainability efforts to drive stronger financial performance doubles between now and 2025 (from 31% to 65%). And by 2030, the vast majority (80%) are convinced their sustainability initiatives will positively or very positively impact their financial performance. Elevate your internal sustainability initiatives for even greater return Unsurprisingly, respondents’ sustainability initiatives are primarily focused on their internal operations—including what’s commonly referred to as Scope 1 emissions—and less so on the supply chain or the impact of their products and services once they are sold and consumed. 1 66% 2 While everyone will ultimately need to get more ambitious and expand their sustainability purview beyond what’s directly in their control, there’s substantial work to be done on improving the sustainability of their internal operations. Within the next two years, according to our research, the pressures of carbon abatement and climate adaptation will cause a marked shift toward more sophisticated, data- driven efforts, such as virtual simulations and advanced analytics. These will be more disruptive to the operational status quo than previous efforts. Of all respondents are focused on the sustainability of their internal operations Further, as businesses revisit their sustainability strategies, they’ll also need to improve the granularity, accessibility, reliability and flexibility of the data on which those targets and plans are based. These are not linear endeavors. In a complex and fluid landscape, strategy must always be regarded as organic. Companies will have to continuously redefine their baselines, targets and plans as new regulations, new technologies and new challenges emerge. Executive summary 6 Deep Green Expand your sphere of influence, upstream and downstream, to secure greater business benefits and impact Many businesses have yet to focus on sustainability initiatives outside of their direct control, including Scopes 2 and 3 emissions. Why? Because it’s an enormous undertaking. Imagine increasing communication and collaboration not just within your own company but also with your partners, suppliers, distributors, communities and customers. To function at a deeply green level, businesses will have to be genuinely connected to their wider ecosystems. They’ll use data and technology to acknowledge, address and solve for environmental challenges up and down the value chain. By leaning into this opportunity, they will innovate differently. That change will unlock new, revenue-expanding services and open new commercial opportunities, generate early-warning insights for risk mitigation and management, and establish new relationships to transform delivery and production. Expanding your sphere of influence means treating suppliers like partners and seeing the sustainability journey as a shared one. It also means looking more creatively up and down the value chain to find atypical partners that help you reconceive products and services that can be developed, integrated and deployed for sustainable growth. Explore the deeper application of emerging and maturing technologies, and commercially creative ways to deploy them To expand sustainability initiatives beyond what can be directly measured, audited and improved, businesses need to boldly explore technology-driven solutions. In our survey, core technologies such as cloud, IoT and automation rank highly for both the extent to which they are deployed and their perceived effectiveness. Now it’s time to capitalize on technology that, at first, may not seem relevant in your industry. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics, digital twins and blockchain—such cutting-edge technologies are necessary to expand sustainability into the larger ecosystem and create products and services that help solve environmental problems rather than just mitigate issues. Only the confident adoption of these technologies will accelerate the enterprise’s impact and outcomes. 3 4 Executive summary Deep Green 7 5 Evolve power structures to allow for necessary shifts in culture and accountability Given the organizational challenges noted by respondents, progress will only happen by getting your internal house in order, from sharpening strategies, to investing in and upskilling talent and preparing the ground for the profound organizational change that’s likely to come. Most importantly, leadership models must evolve to correct what our research reveals as an imbalance between power and accountability. Respondents report that CEOs usually develop sustainability strategies and control the funding for these strategies, while the chief sustainability officer or other senior managers are held accountable for progress or rewarded for success. This power equation needs to be balanced if companies are going to achieve expected results. Further, talent shortages threaten to mar sustainability progress. Becoming deeply green calls for new talent and skills in the enterprise that can often be found through reskilling of the existing workforce. Workforce demographics and dynamics have forever shifted. Even with charismatic ambassadors and change agents leading the charge, businesses need to ensure everyone is motivated to play their part in business sustainability, and for building, sharing and monitoring baselines, targets and plans. Executive summary Leadership models are out of balance 55% 8% Of respondents say the CEO is responsible for allocating budget for sustainability Say the CEO is accountable for delivering on the sustainability strategy 8 Deep Green Introduction Sustainability is fast becoming not just a way of doing business but a way of being a business. From our research over the last three years, we’ve concluded successful businesses in the coming decades will be those that embed sustainability thinking into the very core of all they do inside and outside the organization, all the way through their value chains and product and service lifecycles. Deeply green, these businesses will stand out, competitively and commercially, as sustainability leaders that set the mark for transparency, authenticity and resilience in the face of the planet’s—and humanity’s—increasingly urgent needs. For the last two years, our research has tracked how the concept of sustainability has expanded and intensified. As recently as 2021, we found that senior leaders saw sustainability as not just a cost on the balance sheet but as a driver for business gains like increased sales and improved brand reputation. In our future-ready business study in 2022, the sustainability imperative was even more clear. Nearly all executives affirmed that attending to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is critical to being a modern business. But it also revealed a gap between sustainability mindsets and actions taken. In our most recent study, we took a closer look at the actions businesses are taking now or plan to take in the near future, as well as the challenges holding them back from meeting their goals. Our findings reveal what needs to happen—at a strategy, technology and leadership level—to ensure businesses are ready to expand their sustainability focus into their entire ecosystem. By doing so, businesses will emerge not only as leaders in their markets but as beacons for how to be a sustainable business—a deeply green business—to meet the needs of our changing world. 95%70% said sustainability initiatives would drive higher sales 2021 2023 90% 2022 said ESG was a critical part of being a modern business said sustainability is a vital element of their corporate strategy Deep Green 9 10 Deep Green Boost sustainability investments to realize full business value Our current study reveals an unflagging belief in sustainability as a strategic priority, with nearly all respondents (95%) saying it is a vital element of their corporate strategy. This nearly unanimous agreement is not just talk—it’s accompanied by a willingness to spend on sustainability initiatives that only grows over time (see Figure 1). In fact, between 2020 and 2025, the percentage of respondents increasing their sustainability spending by 10% or greater nearly doubles, from 26% of respondents to 51%. By 2030, the percentage of respondents grows again, to 62%. 1 Figure 1: Spending will rapidly accelerate Has your company’s average annual spend on environmental sustainability changed over the following periods, and how will it change? Q: Source: Cognizant Research Base: 3,000 senior executives 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 2018–2020 15% 20% 6% 12% 19% 39% 43% 2020–20222022–2025 2025–2030 10–20% increase 20% increase The number of respondents increasing spending by 10% or greater nearly doubles, from 26% to 51% And then it grows again, to 62% Deep Green 11 For respondents, investing in sustainability makes good business sense. In fact, over half (57%) ranked improved business performance as a top-three driver for sustainability efforts, a close second to their belief in the moral imperative of doing social good (59%) (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Sustainability is both a moral and financial imperative What are the three most important drivers for your environmental sustainability (percent naming each as a top-three driver) Q: Source: Cognizant Research Base: 3,000 senior executives #1 Boost sustainability investments 59% Do the right thing for society and ensure economic sustainability 45% Demonstrate action to the investment community 37% Reduce business risk 57% Improve business performance 37% Comply with current or future government, industry or regulatory demands 36% Demonstrate action to customers/enhance brand reputation 12 Deep Green Source: Cognizant Research Base: 3,000 senior executives In fact, respondents seem convinced that sustainability investments are justified by the financial rewards they will reap over time. By 2025, 65% of respondents believe their sustainability efforts will have a positive or very positive impact on their company’s financial performance—nearly double the number who feel this way today (34%) (see Figure 3). By 2030, the vast majority (80%) are convinced their sustainability initiatives will positively or very positively impact their financi